The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1887-04-08

cdtlcuttl. 1T mummy Nsis-Co Va az
able-bodied Persian servant of average
skill and intelligence vary between 10
and so kraus ($1.5O to 81. 5O), and very
seldom reach the latter figure. The
Europeans in Persia pay the best
wages, but even they seldom pay more
thar 40 kraus to valet and 80 kraus to
a cook, which includes the wages of his
assistant or assistants. The Persian
dignitaries keep a ridiculously large
retinue of servants, often 150 to 200.
But of this number but small fraction
have their dOmicile in the masters
house. The chief servant arranges it
that a certain proportion of the total
number sleep at the masters house
each night by turns, and the rest spend
the night with their families.
The Persian treats his servant quite
differently from the European. In Il
conspicuous part of the servants quar-
tiers is erected the ''fallakka." 1t is
here that corporal punishment is melted
out to offending members of the do
nestle herd, the delinquent being
forced to put his two feet through
holes in board, and, this being lifted
up, the chief of the domestic police adj
ministers the stick to the soles of the
offender until the number of strokes is
full. This procedure being over, the
delinquent Gf otherwise Il favorite ser
vanD often receives a ''khalat" (rObe
of honOr) or other gift, in token Of his
being received back into the good
graces of his master. At any rate, no
j. -afl oh 10 10
gone through with, either by master or
man, and no ignominy attaches to its
use. The Persian master while using
the 'fallakka" quite literally on occa-
sion, treats his servant generally with
great forbearance and allows him much
latitude. He will make q confdant of
him to-day and send him to "eat the
stick" persian for bastinadO) to-morv
row, knowing well that the man will
bear him no grudge. What the Per-
sian servant can not endure is indiffer-
ence, the sort with which the average
European or American would treat his
servant.
Although poorly paid, the Persian
servant has Il lazy time of it, has often
a chance to steal little, and stands on
a rather high rung of the social ladder
in Persia. He, therefore, serves his
master about as well as he understands
it, and certainly as well as that master
deserves. Cases of unaffected devotion
of man to master are not by any means
rare, and the fallen fortunes of this or
that Persian grandee rarely deprive
him of the really valuable part of his
following. One of the chief character
istics of the Persian servant is his cheer
full way of coming round when
found out. If he sees that some little
theft, some particularly clever piece of
rascality of his, is discovered, he ac-
knOwledges the corn with alacrity.
Cow khordam' q eat dirt), will be
| his form of the PateT PecaCUt, and in
saying which he will throw him
self flat on the ground, lifting
up his feet in the air in token
of his perfect willingness to submit to
sound thrashing. To trace the origin
of theft, however, is generally Il
| pretty difficult matter. The favOrite
method Of dealing with cases of domes-
| tic theft-if the object stolen is worth
! the troubles a mode OF whitewashing
| highly characteristic of the Eastern
mind. The mOdUS Operdndj is about as
! follows: A large, fiat dish, filled with
! fine sand OF flour, is placed on the
| floor of n darkencd room. Then the
| whole procession of servants passes
through that room, one by one. When
! the first one passes through the OPP
| pOsite door the second one steps in,
| sing article is found in the dish at the
close of the operation, and restitution
made easy has carried the day. De-
| tective tricks are hardly ever played
on the poor, msuspecting Persian
| thief. Occasionally, however, an eX-
| ception is made, especially since the
new chief of Justice in Teheran, an
Italian nobleman, Count Iii Monteforte,
/ has imported some innovations into
the pastoral simplicity. A ludicrous
case for which he was responsible will
bear the telling. A theft Of consider
able proportions had occurred in the
household of amin-cd-doulch (minister
of the treasury and the eunuchs were
suspected. They. however, denied,
point blank. Then a mollah priest)
was introduced into the house, after
first receiving his instructions from the
police chief. This venerable person
| age assured the assembled domestics
that the culprit would have his hand
palsied the moment he dipped it into
the dish in the adjoining room. Then
the servants all filed through the dark
ened room, being first solemnly adj
/ SyVr.oI 70, I;sI, b.,
party was caught His fear BETRAYED
him. The dish contained sifted wheat
flour, and everybody's hand bore the
traces of contact with the flour on
emerging from the room except the
negro's. He was at once accused by
the priest and confessed. OF course
he attributed the detection to sorcery;
the simple but effective trick had not
been fathOmed by this child of nature.
Such heroic measures are, however,
but seldom resorted to in Persian
households. ITO take and let take" is
there the motto which is not often devi-
ated from.
One more peculiar custom connected
with domestic service in vogue in that
country deserves mention. Like the
asylums and sanctuaries of the middle
ages, many Pcrsians who have COM
mitted a crime, incurred the enmitv OF
a powerful noble, or made themselves
/ otherwise very obnoxious. seek service
in the house Of mighty protector to
escape the consequences of their do.
ings. Thus, on the election of Il new
favorite to the rank of sadr azen
] 4. 4 ,-ra5